Darksun Character Generation/Half Giant?

[Satyrn]

Play Second Edition AD&D. Done.

But . . . Thac0.

 

[Remathilis]

But . . . Thac0.

Like Dark Sun PCs ever have a problem hitting...

 

[Charlaquin]

But . . . Thac0.

It would be significantly easier to flip the AC scale and convert Thac0 to a to-hit bonus than it would be to throw out all of 5e’s math and re-build it around the assumption of large-sized half giants with +4 strength.

 

[Satyrn]

It would be significantly easier to flip the AC scale and convert Thac0 to a to-hit bonus than it would be to throw out all of 5e’s math and re-build it around the assumption of large-sized half giants with +4 strength.

Or just include those half giants with +4 strength and play a 5e Darksun that's still more balanced than any 2e Darksun game ever was.



. . . than any 2e game was.

 

[Jester David]

In the original Darksun you started at level 3 and rolled 5d4 for stats, or 6d4 drop the lowest. DS was gritty but you had higher scores and some crazyness with the races. You could have a half giant in the orignal DS with 24 strength back when it gave you something like +6 or 7 to hit and +10 damage or something like that.

Its Darksun bounded accuracy wont really be a thing, and DS critters tend to be tougher as well able to use things like psionics which were often things like dominate and death field (roughly equal to Spirit Guardians in 5E).

I want to play Darksun not some watered down semi sandbox balance matters lame based on copy of it.

What always bugged me about that, was if the monsters were tougher and the PCs were tougher, wasn't the result the same as playing a regular game? The net difficulty was identical.

The tougher monster thing doesn't work as well. Because of CR. You can't change what CR means for a setting. A CR1 monster is a CR1 monster (although you can do things like rounding down). What Dark Sun needs to do its really just encourage deadlier encounters and using more high CR monsters, perhaps reducing experienced gained to balance out.

 

[dco]

With racial penalties being OK as per Volos Guide to Monster the Half Giant will be large sized and perhaps have the following.

+4 strength
+2 con
-2 Int/Wis/Cha

For the large bit I am wondering if they would get the extra dice of damage like the other large races and the other races get a bonus ASI to make up for it. They would retain the 2E ability to use two handed normal weapons in one hand so they could dual wield Greatswords or whatever or use a large great sword for 3d6 damage or greataxe for 2d12 damage which is worth about half a feat IMHO (compare with Polearm master).

Probably would not use feats on Darksun to easy (healer, inspiring leader, warcaster etc). Another option would be have some new feats and approved ones from the PHB only. In that event other races would have a bonus feat level 1.

I did it not long ago with hero system, but it's easier to maintain balance because more points to some things mean less for others, caps for stats are usual and you can use complications.

For D&D 5e I would give the old bonuses and penalties you cited of the old game but change CHA to -4, more damage for larger weapons, d10 HPs per level, Speed 40 feet and not using feats is always the best option in my book.

I would also give the half-giants different maximums for their stats:
22 for STR, 18 for INT, 18 for WIS, 16 for CHA
2 more STR than medium races, lower Int and Wis and specially CHA because their personality was not strong, they tried to fit socially and follow what others did.

 

[Zardnaar]

But . . . Thac0.

I don't use THAC0 in 2E when I run it.